1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to amusement rid vehicles. More particularly it relates to a free floating circular raft which carries passengers on an amusement ride which has a rapid flow water course.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many types of boats and rafts which are utilized for traversing fast water rivers including jet drive power boats. Generally, the unpowered boats are inflated rubber rafts, canoes, and spacial row boats. In devising the first amusement ride which simulates a trip down a fast water river, it was of course necessary to provide a boat or raft which could carry the customer/passengers. However, there were several problems not normally experienced by persons riding through a natural set of rapids in a fast water river. In an amusement ride, the passengers must be protected against injury, and they do not expect to get their shoes and clothes wet. In addition, in order to keep the expense of operating the rid reasonable, it was necessary to provide a boat which did not require an experienced driver guiding it down the water course. It was also desirable to have the boat free floating whereby it could drift with the water current for a realistic ride and yet deliver the passengers to the other end of the amusement ride uninjured, dry, and in a sitting position from which they could easily rise to exit the vehicle. For these reasons power boats, canoes, and row boats could not be used: all required an experienced driver or operator and a power boat would be much too expensive and a canoe too unstable or tippy. In addition, a row boat or canoe might be too long for a varying width water course (varying the width of the water course alters the water flow rate). If the row boat or canoe were too long, it could be hung up crosswise in the water course.
An inflated rubber raft, such as are commonly used to ride fast flowing rivers, would seem to be an obvious choice, but these have many significant disadvantages whereby they cannot be used for an amusement ride. The most obvious disadvantage is that all these rafts have a simple rubberized canvas floorboard which is unsteady and not very strong (a person can step right through it if he or she is not careful). These rafts do not have seats, the riders sit on the tubular sides and crossbraces of the boat whereby the riders can and do often fall overboard. These rafts are oblong and longer than they are wide so they could possibly get hung up crosswise in the water course the same as a row boat or canoe.
It was therefore a problem to provide an amusement ride raft which would solve the numerous disadvantages in these prior art boats. It was necessary to provide a boat which did not require an operator to keep it headed correctly in the water course. It was also desirable to have the boat traverse the water course without being guided by underwater rails or tracks; it was desirable that the boat be free floating. The boat had to have rigid floor board which would permit the passengers to stand directly on the bottom of the boat. It had to support all types of passengers: women wearing sharp heels, heavy persons, and it had to provide a stable platform for older persons. In addition, the boat had to have some means for a hand hold in order for people to keep their balance for safety.
It was also determined that the boat for the amusement ride should protect persons from falling overboard during the ride and should provide a normal seat which would permit a person to assume a normal sitting position rather than crouching down or sitting directly on the floor boards of a boat. It was desirable to provide protection from water spray. It was also determined that it was important to provide multiple entrances and exits to the boat so that several persons could enter and exit the boat at the same time or from multiple directions to accommodate any orientation of the boat with respect to the dock when changing riders. This would provide for rapid turn over of riders and better utilization of the boat. Only an enclosed motor boat provides these features; there is no known prior art boat which is a free floating raft which has these features.
For a free floating boat, it was necessary to provide shock protection for the customer/passengers against the boat running into an object. The boat also had to be able to traverse the water course without becoming hung up. It was also an important consideration to create a boat which was lightweight, and yet strong, and would resist the wear and abrasion caused by the boat hitting obstructions and the sides of the water course. Almost none of these problems had been considered let alone solved by the prior art, and there is no boat known from the prior art which provides a solution to all of the problems that need to be considered in providing a passenger boat for a rapid flow water course amusement ride.